Buell Discontinued

It's a sad day in Wisconsin. Buell Motorcycle Company will discontinue production. Erik Buell founded Buell Motorcycle Company in 1983, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, Inc. since 1998. In 26 years more than 135,000 Buell motorcycles were produced. Buell motorcycles have won many awards for innovative design features. Buell also won the 2009 AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike Championship.

Remaining inventories of Buell motorcycles, apparel and accessories will be sold through authorized dealerships. Parts and service will be available through Harley-Davidson Dealerships. Warranty coverage will continue for all Buell motorcycles.

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Employment for the majority of Buell employees will end December 18th, 2009. 80 hourly positions, and 100 salaried positions will be affected. Harley-Davidson expects to incur a one-time cost of approximately 125 million related to the discontinuation of the Buell product line, 115 million is expected to be incurred this year.

It is sad about Buell. not that we are losing a great bike, but because once again, we see a company with innovative thinkers go down because instead of truly using their potential, they decide to compromise, put out a marginal product and rely soley on its American origin and uniqueness. I owned an xb9rFIREBOLT for a half a year. It sold for about $9,000.

My Buell always got comments and had some really neat features and some nice standard bits, like steel braided brake lines. But in exchange this is what I got....It leaked oil out of its filler window from day one (Sportster engines are designed without gaskets of anykind on the filler window!), its steel parts were of low quality evidenced by their almost instantaneous rusting in just damp air, it was 900cc of powder-puff, topping out at a max of 120 mph and lolly-gagging down the qtr mile in about 12 sec. ....., pretty pathetic for a 900cc bike in todays age......, its speedo sensor went out after about 50 miles and the service that a Buell sportbike gets at a Harley dealer is not what I'd call top of the line......., being an ancient air-cooled motor design, it would overheat at longer redlights, its over-heat red-light coming on and you having to pull over and wait for the bike to cool down and then hope you don't have to do it too many more times or you're gonna be late to work. When I did the first oil change, I was introduced to what a Harley engine does during break-in......grind large chunks of itself off into its oil!!!

When I went to sell it, I found out that Buell pulled a little bit of a fast one when year-coding the '03 Firebolts....see, many '03 XB9R's were actually '02's. Some dealers knew that "03 Buell Firebolts had a serial number that indicated they were holdovers. The D.O.T. allows this sometimes depending on when the vehicle was made.

Point is, when I went to sell it, several dealers told me mine was an '02 that had been remarked legally an '03, but that they considered it an '02 and they'd give me about $3500. for a 6 month old bike with 2500 miles on it. That kind of resale is in line with Chinese vehicle depreciation.

Belt-drive and two-valves per cylinder mated with fuel-inj. and up-side-down forks.

Decent wheelies and fair handling up to 100mph, but overall, the worst bike buying and owning experience I've ever had.

Everyone is saying how sad it is because of Buell's performance at Daytona this year.....what performance? it can win against bikes that have 2/3 its displacement....win over privateer bikes that have 1/10th the money and factory support?

The formula that was concocted to allow Buell to be on the same track is so stupid that it is obvious it was just made to let people see a Buell. And see it stay with the pack. If it were made to run with bikes its own cc size, it would be left so far behind as to become a hazard.

How sad that America can't mass produce a competive machine.

And I will predict Harley is next. Unless Obama bails them out too.

The generation that likes what a Harley has to offer is buying them like crazy right now. But the coming generation will see them once again as my generation did in the 70's and 80's....a hugely overweight, slow, unreliable, overpriced, poser of a motorcycle. Harley's sales are about to plunge, unless a miracle occurs and they produce a sportbike that will run for 100,000 miles and win over our Japanese competitors. No, not keep up, WIN.

i couldnt agree more with Tim (comment above), there is a reason that these buells do not hold their resale value what so ever. harleys are overpriced, and fall apart, theres a reason that when they are dynoed, the opperator puts up some sort of shield.

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About the author

Author NameDwight Domonkos

Author Bio

Dwight is a longtime motorsports and motorcycle enthusiast. He's been riding full-time since the early 1990's (but he did borrow a few friends' bikes for a quick trip to the grocery store in his younger days.)

Dwight is a Roadcarvin.com co-founder and serves as editor and photographer, and manages business development.